Just worked out the figures for a 3 day Flexi Pass (260 CHF each), which would cover our three long days of travel which individually prices out at 308 CHF each. Then added all the other transport we plan to take which would be covered at 100% with the Swiss Pass and 50% with the Flexi Pass.

Swiss Pass still wins by 9 CHF.

To me a 15-consecutive day pass is one of the great travel bargains - fully flexible travel carte blanche for your whole time and you will use it more than you think - even those tram or bus rides in cities can add up!

"To me a 15-consecutive day pass is one of the great travel bargains"

For Swiss residents, there's an even better bargain -- a very similar pass for 299 first class (I think it's 219 second class). The downside is that it's good only in the autumn off season (October/November), but you can easily plan around it.

Next year, however, we're going to get the booklet of day cards (6 for the price of 5), both the full day and the after 9 am weekday departure passes. And they are transferable, so I can travel with a friend and use a ticket from the multipack. http://www.sbb.ch/en/travelcards-and...ravelcard.html

Of course, I still keenly miss the mother of all travel passes, the corporate GA. These were fully transferable first-class travel passes good for an entire year across the country. My employer had about two dozen of them and if they weren't being used for business travel on holidays or week-ends, employees could borrow them for personal travel. I explored much of the country that way at no cost. Sadly, the SBB discontinued those passes at the end of 2012. My co-workers and I went into deep mourning. :-(

As Swiss socialism at work once again! (Just kiddin'!) Yup a great deal - I always have a first-class Swiss Pass so know there is a big difference between classes - especially around cities like Zurich where at rush hours 2nd class can become really really crowded! Not so much different in the famous Alpine areas however where some trains are one class or others have a tiny few seats reserved for first class.

I always advise checking prices in your home country vs those in Switzerland (I believe the OP is from Australia so should check RailEurope Australia for prices) - but let's compare to U.S. Prices -

15-consecutive-day pass saver p.p. $458 vs 405 comes out (1.13 to the $) exactly the same $458 but then with the 405 if you have a credit card tacking on 3% it would be $12 each more expensive - about $25 cheaper overall - assuming there is no mailing or handing fee - not a terrible difference but in several years I've been tracking comparisons between prices for the same pass in U.S. and in Switzerland the difference often has been much more in favor of U.S. pricing for some weird reason - and sometimes cheaper to buy in Switzerland - just always pay to check.

Believe me, nothing is cheaper in Australia.

Just checked RailEurope Australia - $600 AUD each. That's $558 USD each.

To confuse matters more, we're on the US payroll, so we've already paid to convert our USD to AUD.

We'll just buy them when we arrive. If they charge a percentage for using a credit card, we can pay in cash, and only have to pay a 1% conversion fee on our US ATM card.

wow $558 vs $458 for same pass from same company, kind of, in the U.S. - guess they charge what the traffic will bear!

thanks for the report on that!

http://updates.raileurope.com/newspa..._2013_2014.pdf

I note you are traveling in December but for others who are traveling after Jan 1 and throughout 2014 there is a current special on Swiss Passes that give free train or gondola trips to mountain tops - which are normally only 50% off: Here the facts: